Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are integrated micro devices or systems combining electrical and mechanical components. MEMS devices may be fabricated using standard integrated circuit batch processing techniques and may have a variety of applications including sensing, controlling, and actuating on the micro scale. MEMS devices may function individually or in arrays to generate effects on a macro scale.
Many MEMS devices benefit from a vacuum environment in order to obtain maximum performance. The vacuum package also provides protection and an optimal operating environment for the MEMS device. Examples of these MEMS devices are infrared MEMS such as bolometers and certain inertial MEMS such as gyros and accelerometers. Currently MEMS devices are individually packaged in vacuum-compatible packages after fabricating and dicing of the MEMS device. Under current packaging methods, the packaging costs of MEMS devices can be as much as ten to one hundred times the fabrication costs. These high packaging costs make it difficult to develop commercially-viable, vacuum-packaged MEMS devices.